MONROVIA – In response to an article about FGM in Liberia, published last Thursday in the local daily FrontPage Africa, the Liberian journalist Mae Azango received death threats. According to Africa Review, Pulitzer-Center grantee Azango has now gone into hiding. “They left messages and told people to tell me that they will catch me and cut me so that will make me shut up”, fears Azango.

In her article she reports about FGM in rural Liberia, and the devastating, and sometimes deadly, effects it can produce. Furthermore two of three girls are victims of FGM in certain parts of the country, she reports.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has now called for Liberian police to ensure safety for Azango and other FrontPage Africa staff. “Authorities must send a clear message that threats of violence are crimes”, confirms CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita.

Ten out of Liberia´s 16 tribes practice FGM, accounting for up to 85 percent of the country´s population. Unsanitary conditions cause infections, tetanus and HIV transmissions.”The people behind these threats seem to be secure that they can act with impunity”, says Keita. It is important now, he stresses, to uphold the law and ensure prosecution.

TORONTO – The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada insists that information about treating patients who have had female genital mutilation should be integrated into the new curriculum of medical schools. “So what that means for us as physicians in Canada is we´re kind of confronted with this kind of anatomical difference, and we need to know how to treat them”, stresses Margaret Burnett, chair of the social and sexual issues committee, in an interview last Tuesday.
According to the Canadian Press a lot more immigrant women from Africa, who suffered FGM, are in medical attention. “One of the biggest things that we see is that sometimes the labour is obstructed because the opening isn´t big enough for the baby´s head to come through”, regrets Burnett. And: “So we have to know what episiotomy to make, how to repair that, in order that these ladies can have normal deliveries.”
The society first issued an official policy document against the practice in 1992. With this statement they want to remind members that FGM is a criminal offence in Canada, and reporting it to child welfare protection services is obligatory when it is suspected. Besides it should encourage doctors to counsel families against FGM and advocate for culturally competent support. “Education is very important. We need to emphasize that there´s no medical reason for this to be done”, explains Burnett.

LONDON – More than 2100 women and girls in London have sought hospital treatment for genital mutilation over the past six years. Therefore the extent of the suffering in Great Britain becomes obvious for the first time – meaning almost one woman a day. More than 700 of those needed to be admitted or have surgery. These figures were published recently by the London Evenings Standard on its website.
“FGM is a particular challenge for London where more girls are at risk than anywhere else and, just as we celebrate this city´s diversity, we must not shy away from difficult issues because of cultural sensitivities”, warns Jane Ellison, member of the British parliament.
The published figures show a peak of treatments in 2010: 442 women were seeking treatment because of female genital mutilation – a 30 per cent increase on 2007. Kit Melthouse, deputy mayor of London, explains that a report on FGM has already been commissioned which puts tackling the practice.
Experts warned that the true number of victims is far higher, with many going to clinics or suffering in silence. About 66 000 women and girls are thought to be affected in England and Wales.

TUNIS/CAIRO – Last weekend hundreds of Tunisians protested against the visit of Islamic cleric Wagdy Ghonem near the capital Tunis. According to the Egyptian news website bikyamasr.com, Ghonem angered Tunisians strongly by promoting female genital mutilation and calling for Islamic law to be applied in Tunisia. The crowd held signs reading “Ghonem must leave”, and “We don´t accept hate language”. Besides he was insulted as an “extremist” and “intruder”.

In a statement of the health ministry it is written that FGM is a “condemned practice that has nothing to do with our culture and society”. Although circumcision of girls is banned in Tunisia, conservatives, who believe the habit promotes virtue, do it anyway. Still many young girls bleed to death while getting cut.

Tunisian women, who were previously the most liberated of all in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, fear loss of those rights with the growing political Islam in the country. Amal Belhaj, editor of an online newspaper, says that a “growing culture in Tunisia is calling unveiled women ´whores´”. She called on democratic countries to support Tunisian women, who were never in such danger before.

KARACHI – “This is one of the country´s best kept secrets”, writes the Pakistani journalist Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam in her blog on the website chaaidaani.wordpress.com last week. There she is talking about female genital mutilation (FGM), a problem, which was not located in Pakistan in that extent until now. After long researches Moazzam discovered that FGM in the mainly Muslim country is mostly carried out by the Bohra Community, about 100 000 members, and other isolated communities in Pakistan. “I did not want to believe that it was happening in my country”, admits Moazzam.
The main problem seems to lie in the non-communication within practicing families. Furthermore: They consider it obligatory according to their faith. But the majority of Muslim scholars world over agree that FGM is not an obligatory custom in Islam. “It is one of those customs that existed in Arab culture prior to the coming of Islam. It is neither advised nor recommended”, confirms Mufti Muhammad Afzal Asari.

With greater awareness about this problem in Pakistan, Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam wants to pave the way for informed decisions. “It is time, yet again, to bring this subject out of the closet.”

Summary: There is now a 25 percentage point differential in prevalence of the practice between Kenyans aged 15-19 and Kenyans aged 40-44, according to the report.

Kenya tops the list of 15 sub-Saharan countries that have drastically reduced cases of female circumcision, a UN report says.

The incidence of female circumcision fell by nearly 16 per cent in the country between 2003 and 2009, the UN Population Fund says in the report released on the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting on Monday.

The survey also found that younger women in Kenya were abandoning the practice at a faster rate than those in the same age group in the 14 other countries taking part in a UN-sponsored anti-cutting programme.

“These findings show that social norms and cultural practices are changing, and communities are uniting to protect the rights of girls and women,” says UN Population Fund director Babatunde Osotimehin.

The report attributed the decline in the number of women undergoing circumcision to sustained public campaigns against FGM, the passing of the FGM Bill last year and the public renunciation of female cutting by communities that have hitherto practised it such as the Ilchamus and the Pokot.

President Kibaki signed the anti-FGM Bill into law in September last year. The law prohibits the practice, safeguards against violation of a person’s mental or physical integrity through the practice of FGM.

Those found conducting the practice are liable to serve up to seven years in prison and fines of up to KShs500,000 (Shs14 million).

Furthermore, anyone who causes death in the process of carrying out female circumcision is liable to life imprisonment.